Comparison of rural and urban attitudes to the conservation of Asian elephants in Sri Lanka: empirical evidence

There has been little study of economic and general attitudes towards the conservation of the Asian elephant. This paper reports and analyses results from surveys conducted in Sri Lanka of attitudes of urban dwellers and farmers towards nature conservation in general and the elephant conservation in particular. The analyses are based on urban and a rural sample. Contingent valuation techniques are used as survey instruments. Multivariate logit regression analysis is used to analyse the respondents' attitudes towards conservation of elephants. It is found that, although some variations occurred between the samples, the majority of the respondents (both rural and urban) have positive attitudes towards nature conservation in general. However, marked differences in attitudes toward elephant conservation are evident between these two samples: the majority of urban respondents were in favour of elephant conservation; rural respondents expressed a mixture of positive and negative attitudes. Overall, considerable unrecorded and as yet unutilised economic support for conservation of wild elephants exists in Sri Lanka. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Empirical evidence showing the relationships between three approaches for pollution control

Willingness to pay models have shown the theoretical relationships between the contingent valuation, cost of illness and the avertive behaviour approaches. In this paper, field survey data are used to compare the relationships between these three approaches and to demonstrate that contingent valuation bids exceed the sum of cost of illness and the avertive behaviour approach estimates. The estimates provide a validity check for CV bids and further support the claim that contingent valuation studies are theoretically consistent.

Forecasting with serially correlated regression models

In this article we investigate the asymptotic and finite-sample properties of predictors of regression models with autocorrelated errors. We prove new theorems associated with the predictive efficiency of generalized least squares (GLS) and incorrectly structured GLS predictors. We also establish the form associated with their predictive mean squared errors as well as the magnitude of these errors relative to each other and to those generated from the ordinary least squares (OLS) predictor. A large simulation study is used to evaluate the finite-sample performance of forecasts generated from models using different corrections for the serial correlation.

The specification of vector autoregressive moving average models

In this paper we propose a new identification method based on the residual white noise autoregressive criterion (Pukkila et al. , 1990) to select the order of VARMA structures. Results from extensive simulation experiments based on different model structures with varying number of observations and number of component series are used to demonstrate the performance of this new procedure. We also use economic and business data to compare the model structures selected by this order selection method with those identified in other published studies.

Correlations, integration and Hansen-Jagannathan Bounds

Recent studies have documented the growing economic and financial integration between countries. Among other things, this has led to the argument that greater integration results in higher bilateral correlations between returns on national stock markets. This study endeavours to link the two issues by utilizing the assumption that if countries are integrated, they would have to display a minimum level of correlation. This is achieved by constructing a bound on the level of the bilateral correlation, as originally developed by Kasa (1995). In contrast to Kasa, the present studies demonstrate that the correlation bound may not be downward sloping in all cases and careful interpretation of the results is required.

From a Vicious Circle of Anxiety to a Virtuous Circle of Learning: Experience of Teaching to a Heterogenous Clientele

A considerable body of literature suggests that significant psychological barrier and anxiety characterize the teaching and learning process in statistics. This study investigates the incidence of statistics anxiety, the extent to which it can be overcome and the factors that contribute to the process of overcoming it. Self-study and overall teaching quality, amongst others, significantly contributed to this outcome. This study identifies factors contributing to overall teaching quality. The teaching and learning process typified a highly effective communication mechanism based on an appropriate diagnosis of individual needs. This cumulative change resulted from circular causation. It is argued that given appropriate conditions the vicious circle of anxiety can be transformed into a virtuous circle of learning.

The net benefit of saving the Asian elephant: a policy and contingent valuation study

Reports results from a contingent valuation (CV) survey of willingness to pay (WTP) for the conservation of the Asian elephant of a sample of urban residents living in three selected housing schemes in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Face-to-face surveys were conducted using an interview schedule (IS). A non-linear logit regression model is used to analyse the respondents' responses for the payment principle questions and to identify the factors that influence their responses. We investigate whether urban residents' WTP for the conservation of elephants is sufficient to compensate farmers for the damage caused by elephants. We find that the beneficiaries (the urban residents) could compensate losers (the fanners in the areas affected by human-elephant conflict, HEC) and be better off than in the absence of elephants in Sri Lanka. Therefore, there is a strong economic case for the conservation of the wild elephant population in Sri Lanka. However, we have insufficient data to determine the optimal level of this elephant population in the Kaldor-Hicks sense. Nevertheless, the current population of elephant in Sri Lanka is Kaldor-Hicks preferable to having none. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.